Saturday, September 08, 2012

Sad, that we get the wrong concept so often from badly translated passages in our mainstream Bible versions. For example, here's Mark 7:27 from a few different mainstream versions:

KJV - But Jesus said unto her,
Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the
children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs.

HCSV - He said to her, “Allow the children to be satisfied first, because it isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”

NIV (1984) - “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.”ESV - And he said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.”

and so on....Of these versions, the NIV comes closest to the meaning. But these next three do the best job:YLT - And Jesus said to her,
`Suffer first the children to be filled, for it is not good to take the
children's bread, and to cast [it] to the little dogs.'

Amp - And He said to her, First let the children be fed, for it is not becoming or proper or right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the [little house] dogs.

ISV - But he kept telling her, "First let the children be filled. It is not
right to take the children's bread and throw it to the puppies."

When we read the first versions, we get in our mind an insult, that Jesus is referring to this woman's ethnic group as dogs. The mental image that arises is Jesus turning his back on her in a huff, throwing his nose up into the air, and saying, "Begone, Dog!"

But that's not what's going on. He's drawing a picture of a harried mom trying to get things done while the kids are at the breakfast table and she's focused on the wrong thing by feeding the household puppy dogs instead of feeding the kids.

And the woman to whom Jesus speaks replies, "Yes, but even when a good mom pays attention to her kids, where it's supposed to be, instead of to the puppies, the puppies still benefit from the spilled crumbs -- they don't go hungry. The mom does not actively prevent the pups from benefiting from what the kids drop."

That word "little" (such as seen in Young's Literal Translation) makes a substantial difference in how our brains draw up the picture, doesn't it?

For those who are curious, the Greek word is word #2951 in Strong's Concordance (http://concordances.org/greek/2952.htm):

We would do well to be teaching Biblical Greek and Hebrew in our Sunday school classes, to our little ones who have the absorption capabilities to learn new languages. Within a generation, we'd have a church membership which is much more Biblically literate than our current crop of Christians.

Wednesday, September 05, 2012

According to the Founders of our great and united States of America, our
rights come from our Creator, not from Government, and they are
unalienable ("not to be separated, given away, or taken away"). Further, our unalienable rights are not limited to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, but rather these are just three examples amongst them.

When I was a kid, one of us might ask if we could do such-and-so, and
another would answer, "It's a free country; do what you want." Nowadays,
the answer is more likely to be, "You'll have to ask permission at the
permit office. And pay a fee."

I don't own my land; if I did, I wouldn't
have to ask the government permission to cut down a tree or put up a
fence or build a house or risk losing the land if I don't pay the
"protection money", er, I mean, property tax.

I'm not arguing against all restrictions; some are necessary to avoid
tromping on the rights of my neighbors; I'm just pointing out the change
in mentality that has occurred in the past half-century which has ceded
our freedoms to the "authorities" who are now responsible, no longer
for guaranteeing those freedoms, but for dispensing them.

Many of our leaders (as well as many of the American sheeple) seem to be
of the mentality that our certain unalienable rights are endowed to us
by government. That conflicts with the Founders' viewpoint. It's an
unAmerican position.

If you've never read the Declaration of Independence, give it a read, or
at a bare minimum, the first two paragraphs; it's a short document:

Tuesday, September 04, 2012

In my previous post, I answered two questions asked on an email list (Church_of_Christ on Yahoo!Groups) from the questioner abotsipatrick. In this post, another email list member responds to the same questions.

---

"abotsipatrick" asks:

"Do the terms pastor, elder, bishop and overseer refer to the same office or different offices?"

Bishop
and overseer both translate the exact same word from the Greek
NT--"episkopos." You'll find "bishop" used by English translations from
more of the "high church" tradition in Php. 1:1; 1 Tim. 3:1-2; Ti. 1:7
(cf. KJV, ASV,
RSV, NKJV, NRSV). In those very same passages, other English versions
(particularly those prepared by a predominantly Evangelical committee),
you'll find the term "overseer" in place of bishop (cf. ESV, NASB, NCV,
NIV, NET).

Do
we find in the NT the three terms ["pastor/shepherd" from poimaino,
"elder/older" from presbuteros, "overseer" from episkopos] being used
interchangeably for the same role in the NT church or for three separate
roles? Acts 20:17-28 has Paul sending for the "elders" of the church
in Ephesus and telling those elders that the Holy Spirit has made them
"overseers" in order to "pastor" (shepherd, care
for) the church of God. In 1 Pet. 5:1-2, Peter exhorts his fellow
"elders" to "pastor" the flock of God, exercising "oversight" (verb form
of episkopos). Titus 1 uses overseer and elder for the same role Paul
is describing, a role he uses overseer for in 1 Tim. 3.

An "elder" is who this
person is--an older as opposed to younger individual, someone who has
gained some practical wisdom through life experience over time.

"Overseer" is what this person is, what it is they do--care for the church, providing guidance, direction, protection.

"Shepherd" is how
the this older person is to exercise oversight--like a shepherd with
his sheep (see Ezek. 34 and Ps. 23). They are to nurture, nourish, and
protect the members of God's
flock.

Side
bar: notice I have refrained from using the term "office," which is
foreign to the text. If we're going to import terminology into the
text, I think "function" is superior to "office".
Elder/overseer/shepherd is not a string of titles but descriptions for a
function within Christ's body the Church. If one is not functioning as
an overseer/shepherd, providing that nurturing, nourishment, and
protection, then they aren't shepherds. One can have a title and hold
an office yet have no function. Not so with
elder/overseer/shepherd.

Abotsipatrick asks a second question:

"Does Eph. 4:11...teach that being a pastor is a gift from God that does not require the appointment or ordination of humans?"

No.
Yes, it teaches that the roles or functions of apostle, prophet,
evangelist, pastor and teacher are gifts from God, just like service,
generosity, exhortation, leadership, being merciful are gifts from God
(Rom. 12:6-8). It does not necessarily follow, however, that stepping
in to the role of an apostle or evangelist or pastor does not require
some form or recognition and affirmation of that gift by the Body of
Christ through some appointment or ordination by humans.

Did
not Paul and Barnabas (two humans) go
through the congregations they had planted and appoint elders in each
congregation (Ac. 14:23)? Did not Paul, a human, leave Titus, another
human, on the isle of Crete to appoint elders in every town as Paul
directed him to do (Ti. 1:5)? How was it Timothy became an evangelist?
Was it not through Paul's deliberate selection based in part upon the
recommendation of the believers from Timothy's home congregation (Ac.
16:1-4), and did it not include the laying on of hands of an eldership
(1 Tim. 4:14). Was not Timothy himself, in being given instructions
about what to look for in a prospective overseer or deacon (1 Tim. 3)
cautioned not to "lay hands" (i.e. commission or ordain) on anyone too
hastily (1 Tim. 5:22)? Was not there direct human involvement in the
selection of Judas' replacement to the role of apostle? For it began
with Peter addressing the need and setting out the parameters for the
kind of person they were
looking for. The congregation narrowed the field down to two
individuals. After that, they asked God to make his choice of the two
known through prayer and casting lots (Ac. 1:15-26)? Human involvement
working with Divine guidance.

The Lord save the church from self-appointed apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.

Final observation: Somehow,
somewhere, we've picked up the notion that having a gift means
permission to use that gift in any manner the gifted one seems fit. But
a gift is not a license to do as one pleases. Bezalel and Oholiab were
divinely gifted by God and filled with God's Spirit "with ability,
intelligence, knowledge and craftmanship to devise artistic designs, to
work in gold, silver, bronze," etc. in order to construct the tabernacle
(Ex. 31; 35:30-36:5). Yet those gifts were only to be used within the
boundaries established by God. When God said to use almond blossoms for
the menorah, for example, they did not have the artistic license to add
or substitute cherry blossoms in the design. Gifted artisans though
they were, they were not at liberty to use those God-given gifts to
construct an idol, or pornographic sculptures, etc.

Reception
of a gift is not permission to then use it in any manner or fashion we
please. We must exercise our gifts within the parameters God has
established.

On an email list of which I'm a member, abotsipatrick asked the following:

Do the terms pastor, elder, bishop and overseer refer to
the same office or different offices?

and

Secondly, does Ephesians 4:11 ("and some pastors and
teachers") teach that being a pastor is a gift from God
that does not require the appointment or ordination of
humans?

In this post, I give my response. In my next post, I will give the response of another list member.

----

Let me encourage you to think in terms of "roles", or "services",
first, and then apply that to the concept of "office".

pastor - I encourage you to mentally translate this word as
"shepherd". The role of a shepherd is to care for a flock of dumb
sheep, making sure they get fed, watered, and are safe, occasionally
helping in the process of birthing or other medical service, etc.
The shepherd is not a rule-maker, or a tyrant, or a business person,
except only insofar as taking care of the business of flock-care
requires.

elder - I encourage you to mentally translate this word as
"older person". The older people in a group tend to be those who
have been wizened by life-experience, and who thus have influence on
the direction the group goes. They would tend to make or at least
influence the making of whatever rules are needed for the flock's
personal safety.

bishop, overseer - same word, different eras of
language. I encourage you to mentally translate this word as
"overseer", or "supervisor". This is a person who directs, takes
charge, assigns tasks, makes sure things work according to the
mission statement. They would would tend to make whatever rules are
needed for the flock's communal safety.

An ideal, mature leader will have all of these characteristics, such
that the roles overlap in one individual. I believe that in the New
Testament, the ideal was that the local church leader[s] would fill
all of these roles. However, when a leader recognizes that he's not
suited to a particular task, he might delegate that task to another,
such as how the leaders in the early church (Acts 6) delegated the
shepherding role of of physically feeding the community to
specially-designated servants, while they focused on the shepherding
role of spiritually feeding the community.

Likewise, a local community of believers might have a leadership
body containing one person who is very good at the business aspects
of running the group - this person would most likely fill the role
of bishop/overseer. Another person in the leadership might excel at
dispensing wisdom, and might serve as the counselor who is sought
out for his answers to life. A third person in the leadership might
be an awesome teacher, filling the minds and spirits of the
membership with God's food. Or perhaps each of the leaders excels in
all three areas, or a mixture.

So to answer your question, yes, the terms all do refer to the same
"office" - that of leadership, but they do not necessarily
all refer to the same officeholder, the same leader. As
Romans 12:4 says:

KJVFor as we have many members in one
body, and all members have not the same
office:

let us focus on using whatever gift God has given each of us, and
let those with the gifts of shepherding and of wisdom-dispensing and
of supervisory capabilities use their gifts to care for, lead, and
take care of the community. And let us recognize that it will be
rare to find one person with all these characteristics, which is
part of the reason a leadership body might be better composed of
multiple leaders with differing strengths rather than trying to
force-fit a single leader into filling all the roles.

abotsipatrick's second question:

Secondly, does Ephesians 4:11 ("and some pastors and
teachers") teach that being a pastor is a gift from God
that does not require the appointment or ordination of
humans?

Paul writes in Galatians 1:1 that he is "an apostle—not from men or
by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father". The full text of
the verse you reference is:

HCSB Eph
4:11 And He personally gave some to be
apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some
pastors and teachers,

Yes, being a pastor is a gift from God that does not require the
appointment or ordination of humans. Compare Romans 12:

6 According to the
grace given to us, we have different gifts:If prophecy,use it according to the
standard of one’s faith;7 if service, in service;if teaching, in teaching;8 if exhorting, in exhortation;giving, with generosity;leading, with diligence;showing mercy, with
cheerfulness.

and 1 Corinthians 12:

4 Now there are different gifts,
but the same Spirit. 5 There
are different ministries, but the same Lord. 6 And there are different
activities, but the same God activates each gift in each
person. 7 A demonstration of
the Spirit is given to each person to produce what is
beneficial:

8 to one is given
a message of wisdomthrough the Spirit,to another, a message of
knowledgeby the same Spirit,9 to another, faith by the same
Spirit,to another, gifts of healing
by the one Spirit,10 to another, the performing
of miracles,to another, prophecy,to another, distinguishing
between spirits,to another, different kinds
of languages,to another, interpretation
of languages.

11 But
one and the same Spirit is active in all these,
distributing to each person as He wills.

and

27 Now you are the body of
Christ, and individual members of it. 28 And God has placed these
in the church:

first
apostles, second prophets,third teachers, next
miracles,then gifts of healing,
helping,managing, various kinds
of languages.29 Are all apostles? Are
all prophets?Are all teachers? Do all
do miracles?30 Do all have gifts of
healing?Do all speak in other
languages?Do all interpret?

31 But desire the greater
gifts.

God gives each of us one or more gifts, to be used in
building up the body. Some of them are miraculous; some are not.
Some are given according to what God deems best; some are given
according to what we desire (v 31 above) and pursue (1 Cor 14:1) and
ask for (1 Cor 14:13).

However, just because a person has a gift, that does not necessarily
mean he will be appointed within a particular community to exercise
that gift. Paul instructed Titus to appoint people to serve as
elders in each town; but he restricted those appointments to people
who were suitable for the task. God gives the gift and the overall
appointment; Man gives the local appointment.